I have started gathering materials for the project. I am contacting various manufacturers to get different lights ranging from fluorescent 12 volt lamps to LED replacement bulbs for normal lamps to CFL energy efficient replacement bulbs.

I have a few 12 volt 6Ah batteries that will be used in this project. That should be 72 Watt hours. So, theoretically, based on the battery rating, I should be able to run a 12 Watt lamp for 6 hours or two lamps for three hours on a full charge. Now, again a theory here, if I use an 18 Watt solar panel, running all day in the winter, I should get about ten hours of sunlight. This should be sufficient to keep the battery charged. Cloudy days will change the amount of energy available.

Let's assume 50% sunlight for those ten hours then we have about 90 Watt hours to use up at night.

An average energy efficient CFL replacement bulb is rated for about 13 Watts usage and gives out light equivalent to a 60 Watt incandescent lamp. Add loss for an inverter and that brings us up to about 15 Watts per hour. This should still give us about 6 hours of light on a single battery, solar panel, inverter and lamp. Again, all in theory. The tests results will show how close I am.

I am going to start a project to run my home lighting for free using normal commercially available products. The plan is to set up 2-3 energy savings lamps with a solar panel and inverter all for under $150 total. The goal is to drop energy consumption in the home. If I can power all the lights in the home from solar alone, the results would be a savings of between 20 to 30% on the electric bill.

Tests have shown that 30% of the average US household electric bill is from lighting alone.

I will be posting plans, sources and results as this project progresses.

I have about 25 years of experience in electricity, and electronics ranging from DIY home made table fan wind generators to solar to radiant energy chargers.

I will be using a variety of lamps ranging from LEDs to 12 volt fluorescent lamps to energy savings bulbs. The batteries used will be simple 12 volt alarm system batteries that are available around the world for relatively low prices. I will use standard off-the-shelf inverters and solar panels.

Now, let's consider that it is currently mid-winter and the worst time for solar. This will be the best time for extreme stress tests on the system.

Let's see what happens...